The female rose and departed, unseemly haste implicit in all her lines. Another subtle insult.
Oppuk floated on his back, watching reflected light waver across the ceiling. He had constructed this residence to impress the locals, incorporating elements of human design in order to make it grand in their eyes. Perhaps that had been a mistake, giving them an exaggerated concept of their own importance. He decided to have the building razed in the near future, once the flow of the moment had completed itself, and then have a new Jao quantum crystal palace poured.
Elsewhere, on one of the coasts. Perhaps he would have Oklahoma City destroyed by a bolide, to remove the vile memories.
As soon as oudh was returned to him, he would start.
* * *
Oppuk was not relieved when a Narvo elder presented himself at the palace, the next day, ending at last the dreary solitude of his palace-become-prison. How predictable. After endless orbital cycles of disregard and silence, this sordid mess had finally commanded their unwilling notice.
The doorfield faded, revealing an older male. Oppuk had known this one but slightly in his youth and now did not even recall his name, though he did seem to remember they had never regarded one another with favor.
“Long have you have shamed us,” the male said. “Will it never stop?” Even at his age, he had that muscular vigor Narvo always prized, classic ears, a plush brown nap. As befit his station, his harness was very fine, the trousers the green of the finest cloth, the cut supremely flattering.
The elder had not offered his name, which meant this was not to be discourse between equals.
“I have shamed no one,” Oppuk said angrily, his ears pinned back. “I have made myself of use, taming this vile world, as I was bid.”
He lurched out of the pool, feeling desiccated the moment he left the water. “It is not my fault these creatures are so intractable. I have never shirked this noisome duty to which you bound me all those cycles ago.”
The elder’s eyes flashed a fierce, unforgiving green. “Is that what Shia krinnu ava Narvo would say?”
His old fraghta. Oppuk fought not to flinch. “Shia chose to leave, I did not send her away.”
“You were kept here, safely out of the way—we thought!—precisely because she did leave.” The male’s whiskers twitched with distaste. “After such reckless behavior on your part, ignoring your own fraghta to the point of driving her off, we would have been fools to trust you with a more civilized assignment!”
Oppuk tried to protest, but could not. The old harridan had been irritating beyond belief and he had most certainly desired her departure.
“I am rightful governor here,” Oppuk said, trying to shift the discussion to ground he felt he could properly defend. “Will Narvo back my authority, or will you permit this barely emerged Pluthrak upstart to go on discrediting me?”
“We will do what we can,” the male said, “but your neglect of duty is obvious for all to see. If you do not take adequate care of the natives put in your charge, then it is only right they should be given over to the authority of someone else.”
He gazed around the empty room. “What were you thinking, when you constructed this muddle for your principal residence? How could a true Jao ever be comfortable in such surroundings?”
He did not wait for an answer. “Come,” the elder said. “We have received permission from the Bond to remove you from their custody. You are to come to our command ship. Make haste. All the kochan representatives have now arrived. The Naukra will be assembling very soon.”
Though this was exactly what he had been waiting for, Oppuk was alarmed by his kinsman’s stance. Whatever awaited him on the Narvo ship up in orbit, he dreaded to learn its name.
* * *
The name, he discovered, was Nikau krinnu ava Narvo, and his foreboding was not mistaken. One of his pool-parents, she had been, and it was a particularly unpleasant surprise to see her. As aged as she was, Oppuk had been certain she was long since deceased.